Music legend Ilaiyaraaja was forced to vacate his studio situated inside the sprawling Prasad Studios in Chennai where he had scored music for over a thousand films, over the course of four decades. He was denied access after the owners decided to lease out the premises for an IT company.
Earlier last month Ilaiyaraaja unveiled his new music studio in Chennai. On Tuesday, superstar Rajinikanth paid a visit to Ilaiyaraaja's new music studio in Chennai's Kodambakkam and also visited the music composer's residence before heading to his studio.
It may be noted this is the first public appearance of Rajini since his return from Annaatthe shooting which was happening in Hyderabad. The shoot had to be halted when a few crew members tested positive for COVID-19.
Both Rajinikanth and Ilaiyaraaja share a good rapport and the two have worked together in several films. Ilaiyaraaja who scored music for more than 5,000 songs in over 1,000 movies in almost every Indian language, was offered a place inside the famous studios by its founder LV Prasad in the late 1970s.
Recently it was announced that Ilaiyaraaja would be composing music for Vetrimaaran's next starring Soori in the lead and Vijay Sethupathi in an extended cameo. According to reports, the film will be based on Thunaivan, Jeyamohan’s short story. The film also stars Bhavani Sre who made her acting debut with the recent anthology Paava Kadhaigal. It was revealed that Vijay Sethupathi will be seen playing a significant character in the film and the shooting of the film had already begun.
Ilaiyaraaja is also composing for actor Vijay Antony's next film titled Thamilselvan. This is the first time Ilaiyaraaja would be scoring music for Vijay Antony, who has usually doubled up as composer for all his projects so far.
Talking about roping in Ilaiyaraaja for the project, the director was quoted by Deccan Chronicle saying, “The film has a lot of emotions and background score is of utter importance. Except Raja sir no one can do justice to my script’s BGM. Hence, we opted for Isaignani.”
(Content provided by Digital Native)